3-point buzzer-beater sinks Kings
SACRAMENTO — The start was scintillating, the finish fantastic.
The Thunder likely would like to forget what came between.
Russell Westbrook’s 3-pointer at the buzzer Thursday night at Golden 1 Center lifted the Thunder to a 110-107 win against the Sacramento Kings and saved it from what would have been an embarrassing start to its post-AllStar stretch run.
You’ve seen it before, Westbrook catching the ball with a second to play, pulling from outside the arc and burying an opponent. Thursday didn’t seem like the sort of night you’d see it again.
Not after a furious first quarter in which Oklahoma City looked like a post-break powerhouse.
Hours before the game, Paul George echoed the sort of sentiment Carmelo Anthony had shared the day before, about starting the post-All-Star-break portion of the season on the right foot.
“We got to play with some energy,” George said. “We can’t look lethargic and try to ease our way into tonight. We got to come off and hit the ground running tonight.”
For a quarter, the Thunder looked every bit like the team it hoped to be coming out of the All-Star break.
It was on target offensively, dialed in on defense. Oklahoma City surged to a 23-point first-quarter lead behind a dazzling display of shooting. It made its first six 3-pointers — four of them from Carmelo Anthony — and had 14 assists on 16 made field goals.
Its defense was nearly as crisp, holding the Kings to 7-of-21 shooting and turning Sacramento’s five first-quarter turnovers into 12 points.
It was 44-21 after one, and it looked like a laugher. Then the Kings got serious.
Sacramento outscored OKC 39-23 in the second quarter, and its good mojo carried over into the third, when it rolled to a 30-18 edge.
The Kings led 90-85 through three quarters, having held the Thunder to 41 points in the second and third quarters combined after allowing 44 points in the first.
Coach Billy Donovan said Thursday morning that “there’s an excitement, there’s an energy, there’s an enthusiasm” to his team coming out of the All-Star break.
It showed in the first quarter, when the Thunder clicked from the tip. The ball moved, players rotated and OKC had a spring in its collective step.
But the Kings had a break, too, and even its oldest legs looked fresh as the game wore on.
Zach Randolph, a Thunder nemesis since his Memphis days, had 29 points and 12 rebounds. Vince Carter — whose NBA career began in 1998, the year Thunder rookie Terrance Ferguson was born — had 13 points, including a blow-by dunk in the second quarter that turned back the clock.
And former OU star Buddy Hield, who typically relishes the chance to play the team from his collegiate home state, had 19 points, boosting a bench that outscored Oklahoma City’s.
But the Thunder rallied late, taking a 106-105 lead on Steven Adams’ tip-in with 2:18 to play. With OKC leading 107105, Carter missed a deep 3-pointer, and the Kings’ Justin Jackson scored to tie the game with a second to play.
Westbrook took it from there, sealing a dramatic win, though not exactly the one the Thunder wanted opening its closing stretch.
Westbrook finished 17 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists. George had 26 points.